A monumental hole

With the CBI all set to file a closure report in the Taj Corridor case, citizens are left baffled. At a basic level, we are not any closer ...

With the CBI all set to file a closure report in the Taj Corridor case, citizens are left baffled. At a basic level, we are not any closer to clarifying what was actually going on in the Taj Corridor case. Even if the attorney general8217;s assessment, that there is not enough evidence to press criminal charges against the accused, is a fair reflection of the available facts, this raises more questions than it answers. There were two issues at stake. The first was whether the construction project seriously put the landscape, environment and the general ambience of the Taj Mahal at risk. The second was whether there was conspiracy at stake for vested interests to gain huge sums of money out of the project. The general assumption was that such a potentially colossal planning blunder could have been sanctioned only if someone stood to materially gain from the project. Hence the need for an investigation. But since the CBI has effectively ruled out ever establishing, to the satisfaction of the law, that criminal irregularities were at stake, citizens will be left wondering exactly what Mayawati8217;s government was up to in sanctioning the project.

But the more serious issue pertains to the credibility of state institutions. The CBI has now put itself in such a position that the shadow of political partiality hovers over whatever it does. Cases are filed and withdrawn, pursued or put away in ways that too comfortably align with changes in government. The CBI will have to do more to dispel the notion that the zeal with which it pursues evidence had nothing to do with changing political scenarios, either now or when it first commenced the investigation under the NDA government.

The closure of the case also puts the Supreme Court in a somewhat awkward position. It was the court that had originally ordered a CBI investigation. It was well within its rights to do so, and it was always possible that an investigation would reveal nothing. But the fact that only minor administrative irregularities have surfaced will raise many legitimate questions about the court8217;s role. No one is going to suggest that the courts are partisan. But judicial oversight of investigating agencies will turn the spotlight on the judiciary as well. Was the court too hasty in ordering a CBI inquiry and suspending normal presumptions that should govern administrative discretion? Given the fact that the court was receiving constant progress reports from the CBI, could not this case have been brought to a close earlier? These questions are appropriate because this investigation had profound consequences for the personal and political lives of the public officials involved, as indeed that of Mayawati herself. If the CBI8217;s latest assessment is warranted, what was all the fuss about? If all the fuss in the past was justified, how did this case end in a whimper?